Native Plant of the Week: Butterfly Weed
- Kimberly Simmen
- 4 days ago
- 1 min read
Family: Apocynaceae
Name: Asclepias tuberosa
Bloom Time: June-July
Flower: orange
Soil Condition: dry, moist, well-drained
Light: Sun
Height: 24-36" tall x 24-36" wide
Native Range: Eastern and Southern United States including Long Island
Zone:Â 3 to 9
Photos (KMS Native Plants): Top Row: bumble bee on flower, flower habit, feather-legged scoliid wasp (Dielis plumipes) on flower Second Row: flower habit, bumble bee on flower, spicebush swallowtail on flower
Butterfly weed is a great perennial for sunny sites with poor, dry soil. It has a very long taproot, so be sure wherever you plant it, that is where you want it to stay. It will seed itself to form a colony and you may find some growing in new places as the wind takes the fluffy seed for quite a ride in the late summer.
Maintenance: none necessary, tie a string around the seed pods just before they split open to collect seeds or let the wind carry them to new locations
Benefits: host plant to grey hairstreak, monarch butterfly caterpillars and milkweed tussock moth, nectar source, pollinators, drought tolerant
Fun Facts: The genus name Asclepias, honors the Greek god of medicine, Asklepios.
Noteworthy Cultivars: 'Gay Butterflies' - mix of red, yellow and orange flowers , 'Hello Yellow' - yellow flowers
Companion Plants: Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern), Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower), Panicum virgatum and cultivars (switchgrass), Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), Coreopsis verticillata (tickseed)
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